Logan baseball wins four straight games

CARTERVILLE -- The John A. Logan College baseball team went 4-0 in games played Thursday and Friday.
The Vols swept a three-game series against Kaskakia with scores of 19-2, 7-4 in eight innings and 3-1, then defeated Frontier, 3-2.
Logan is now 17-12 overall and 6-3 in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference.
The Vols started out hot in game one on Thursday, smashing 13 hits leading to 19 runs. Jeremy Gaines, Ashton Creal, and Collin Clayton all collected multiple hits for Logan.
Starter Trey Riley was dominant, throwing a complete game, giving up two runs while scattering three hits, and striking out 10 in the short game victory.
Game two saw Logan trailing 4-1 heading into the fifth, but a two-out, two-RBI double from Collin Clayton cut the deficit to one. In the sixth, Blake Johnson tied the game with a solo homer.
In the eighth, the Vols busted the game open with three runs in the top half and Andrew Zenner threw a perfect bottom half to finish the game. Zenner (2-1) picked up the win, throwing three innings of scoreless relief, while not allowing a hit and striking out six.
Game one on Friday saw another dominant performance on the mound for Logan. Tanner Gordon (4-2) got into some trouble in the first, but cruised the rest of the way, throwing a complete game, giving up only the first inning run, while striking out nine. Hunter Combs led the offense with two hits.
In the series opener against Frontier, the Vols rallied late to win a pitchers duel.
Down 2-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Jack Wilson led off with a solo home run down the right field line to tie it. The Vols had the winning run at third with two outs with Blake Johnson at the plate.
Up in the count 3-1, Frontier decided to try and intentionally walk Johnson, but threw the next pitch to the backstop allowing Shane Piesker to score and win the game.
Piesker led the Vols at the plate going 3-for-3 with two runs scored. Starter Hunter Sullivan went eight strong innings, giving up two runs on four hits, while striking out six and picking up a no-decision. Cole Hensel (2-0) pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up the win.